ST. PETER, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team faced a tough task on Tuesday night when they hit the road to take on No. 15 Gustavus Adolphus for a nonconference volleyball matchup. The Gusties won the match 3-0 as the Vikings fell to 3-5 on the season.
 
In the early goings of the match Bethany went point-for-point with the Gusties, who were ranked No. 15 in today's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll. With things tied at 9-9 in the first Gustavus showed their strength, rattling off 12 of the next 14 points to take a 21-11 lead. From there, they would use a few Viking attack errors along with a pair of kills to take the set 25-13.
 
The home team continued their excellence in the second set, starting things off 8-0 before eventually extending that lead to 18-6. The Vikings would get a pair of kills from Esther Peeters to help score four of the next six points, but Gustavus would go on to close out the set 25-12.
 
Down 2-0 Bethany came out strong in the third, getting out to a 5-3 lead thanks in part to two kills from Kate Maag. Gustavus would pull the lead within one point at 8-7 before going on an 8-1 run to take a 15-9 lead just over midway through the set. They would extend the lead to 19-11 before Bethany would fight their way back and cut the deficit to six points at 20-14 after a kill from Lexiss Trygg. Six was as close as they would get though as the Gusties took the set 25-17 and the match 3-0.
 
Maag and Trygg tied for the team lead in kills, both notching six and hitting .136 in the match. Femke Peters also had a strong showing on the attack, notching three kills on just eight total attacks. Paloma Garcia de Fuentes totaled 10 assists to lead the team, while Maddi Wendland had 16 digs.
 
The Vikings are next in action on Saturday when they travel to UW-La Crosse for a pair of contests.